‘He was able to wake up’: Damar Hamlin’s latest health update and next steps in recovery
Enquirer Bengals beat reporter Kelsey Conway details the latest updates from doctors on Damar Hamlin’s health.
USA TODAY
We all know what the NFL calendar says. It’s Week 18.
If only that was so easy to define for the Buffalo Bills, challenged to get ready to play another football game on Sunday while second-year safety Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition in an intensive care unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center after suffering cardiac arrest on Monday night.
“My concern is making sure these men have what they need to function,” Troy Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told reporters during a Zoom conference call on Wednesday. “And that’s getting through this day.
“Tomorrow’s going to take care of itself.”
Vincent, whose 15-year career as an NFL defensive back included three seasons with the Bills during the early 2000s, was talking about mental health and the league’s efforts to support coach Sean McDermott and his team with additional resources.
For all of the training, practices, game-planning strategies and other components of the NFL grind, nothing has prepared the Bills – players, coaches and staff alike – for the trauma of the life-and-death situation presented during the first quarter of their game against the Cincinnati Bengals when Hamlin’s heart stopped beating and first responders resuscitated him on the field using CPR and an AED. Hamlin collapsed after making what appeared to be a routine tackle.
UC doctors said Thursday that Hamlin woke up Wednesday night in the intensive care unit after being sedated, followed commands and communicated via writing.
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They can only wish that it was as simple as moving on to New England, the opponent slated for Sunday in Orchard Park, New York, with AFC playoff ramifications at stake.
The Bills (12-3), with many players seen sobbing and praying while Hamlin was treated on Monday night, are pressed to demonstrate another type of resilience while processing their grief against their professional duties. They underwent a walk-through practice and team meetings on Wednesday, with coping mechanisms suspected to be as essential as any two-minute drill or blitz package.
It remains to be seen whether McDermott will ramp up practices on Thursday, given that it already promised to be a short week before the unprecedented emergency arose that prompted a suspension (and possible cancellation) of the key matchup against the Bengals.
Bills players have largely avoided speaking publicly this week and the team canceled its typical media availability on Wednesday. It’s unclear how many players and staff have tapped into the NFL’s resources that include counseling services. Vincent said the league efforts included mass communication to the team with information outlining the types of resources, methods and logistics for where and how to access what’s available 24/7 for the team and their family members.
“The team is doing as well as we can,” veteran tackle Dion Dawkins told Wolf Blitzer during an interview on CNN. “It’s a lot of sad clouds and a lot of happy spirits. A lot of happy prayers. But we are all devastated. When things like this happen, it’s a shock to all of us. It’s a dramatically unique thing that has happened. We’re all going through it together, and honestly, the entire world is. Everyone that has seen it, our whole country, every football fan, everybody who’s not even a part of football has seen and heard this story.
“So, we’re all handling it in different ways. It’s a unique situation.”
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical adviser, acknowledged the “mental strain” and widespread ramifications not only with the Bills but across the NFL. Of the counseling and other resources, Sills said, “It will be an ongoing need … for the entire NFL family.”
Vincent has been in constant contact with McDermott but maintained that they have not talked about football elements that might include the uncertainty attached to the seedings of the upcoming AFC playoffs. The NFL is discussing options that conceivably include canceling the Bills-Bengals game or resuming the game and pushing back the start of the AFC playoffs as part of a reconfigured postseason schedule.
Of his conversations with McDermott, Vincent said, “They have been 100% around ‘how’s he doing?’ We’ve had no discussions outside of ‘how’s his mental health himself and how are the players?’
“Coach is still battling,” Vincent added.
The Bills are hardly alone in trying to cope. While Bengals players sharing the field on Monday night quickly bonded with Buffalo players as the tragedy struck, no Cincinnati player may be as intimately attached as wide receiver Tee Higgins, who Hamlin tackled before collapsing.
Shamefully, social media users have viciously attacked Higgins, who reportedly has also received death threats. Foolishly, ESPN analyst Bart Scott blamed Higgins for causing Hamlin’s tragedy. The firestorm has been so intense that Hamlin’s family issued a public plea that asked for the criticism of Higgins to cease.
Obviously, as Sills alluded to, nerves have been struck in locker rooms across the NFL. Many players could be asking themselves, “Could that happen to me?”
Jets coach Robert Saleh knows how such concerns exist. During a team meeting on Wednesday, in which he also brought in the team’s medical staff, the coach gave his players an open forum to talk about Hamlin.
“Just opened it up for guys to speak,” Saleh told reporters. “Very hard situation as I’m sure it is in every building in the NFL right now.”
And especially in Buffalo.
